{"id":2586,"date":"2026-07-16T02:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2026-07-16T02:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:09:12","slug":"the-venice-biennales-us-pavilion-was-supposed-to-say-something-about-america-it-didnt-and-thats-the-point-mother-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/?p=2586","title":{"rendered":"The Venice Biennale\u2019s US Pavilion Was Supposed to Say Something About America. It Didn\u2019t\u2014And That\u2019s the Point. \u2013 Mother Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"hero is-image \">\n\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-caption\">United States Pavilion<\/span><span class=\"media-credit\">Marco Bertorello\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mj-text-cta\">Get your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/newsletters\/?mj_oac=Article_Top_No_Oligarchs\" data-ga-category=\"TopOfArticle\" data-ga-label=\"NewsletterPromoCovid\" data-ga-action=\"click|https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/newsletters\/?mj_oac=Article_Top_Support\">Sign up for the free <em>Mother Jones Daily<\/em>.<\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"section-lead\">Every two years,<\/span> nearly 100 countries send their best artists to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.labiennale.org\/en\">Venice Biennale<\/a>, sometimes called the Olympics of art. It\u2019s cultural diplomacy dressed up as art\u2014a chance for each nation to make a statement to the world about who they are. I am by no means an art expert; the closest I\u2019ve come to curation is deciding which of my kids\u2019 sketches goes on the fridge. But as someone who happened to be passing through the Italian city on a family vacation, I was curious to see what the rest of the world might be taking away about America from the US exhibit.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Q8Nrv8Pe9kw\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Venice Biennale\u2019s US Pavilion Said... Nothing\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q8Nrv8Pe9kw?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By now, a lot has been written about how the US artist was chosen. Normally, the artist is selected by a panel of experts from the National Endowment for the Arts. This year, President Donald Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/04\/19\/arts\/design\/venice-biennale-trump-us-pavilion.html\">State Department took over the process<\/a>, handing the US pavilion to a new nonprofit run by Jenni Parido, who has no professional museum experience and whose last job was running a luxury pet food store in Tampa, Florida. Another figure <a href=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/the-maga-barbie-redecorating-the-state-department\/\">reportedly weighing in on the search<\/a> was Erin Scavino, the State Department\u2019s director of art in embassies and a former <em>Apprentice<\/em> contestant married to Trump\u2019s White House deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration also <a href=\"https:\/\/artreview.com\/us-venice-pavilion-adds-new-guidelines-for-american-values\/\">issued new guidelines<\/a> requiring that artwork must \u201creflect and promote American values\u201d and \u201ccounter negative stereotypes.\u201d The new language also barred anything associated with DEI. This marked a sharp turn from the last callout, which had listed \u201csupport of Equity and Underserved Communities\u201d as one of its core selection criteria. The most recent US pavilions featured work from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.labiennale.org\/en\/art\/2022\/milk-dreams\/simone-leigh\">Simone Leigh<\/a>, the first Black woman to represent the US, in 2022 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.labiennale.org\/en\/art\/2024\/united-states-america\">Jeffrey Gibson<\/a>, the first solo US Indigenous artist, in 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The selection process ultimately produced Alma Allen\u2019s exhibit \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.almaallenvenice2026.org\/\">Call Me the Breeze<\/a>,\u201d featuring about two dozen stone, wood, and bronze sculptures, most of which are labeled \u201cNot Yet Titled.\u201d The art world\u2019s answer to \u201cwhat values are on display\u201d was pretty much\u2026not many. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/07\/arts\/design\/venice-biennale-us-pavilion.html\"><em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a> found that the sculptures \u201cpresent some modest technical facility but no great thought\u201d and \u201clook fine enough for a South Beach hotel lobby.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/2026\/05\/venice-biennale-american-pavilion-israel-russia\/687163\/\">A critic for <em>The Atlantic<\/em><\/a> commented that the show made them feel like they\u2019d \u201cfinished a puzzle that mocked me for solving it.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/a-whole-lot-of-nothing-at-the-us-pavilion\/\"><em>Hyperallergic<\/em><\/a> highlighted one particular sculpture as a favorite piece because it reminded the writer of a portal, \u201csomething to zap me into a better US pavilion in a parallel universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, I don\u2019t mean to beat up on Allen. He\u2019s just a sculptor who got an incredible chance to show his work on one of the world\u2019s most prestigious stages. In the end, the art never answered my question about what American values are being reflected and promoted. The US government did\u2014not through the exhibit, but through everything it did to avoid saying anything at all.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2026\/07\/the-venice-biennales-us-pavilion-was-supposed-to-say-something-about-america-it-didnt-and-thats-the-point\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States PavilionMarco Bertorello\/Getty Get your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Every two years, nearly 100 countries send their best artists to the Venice Biennale, sometimes called the Olympics of art. It\u2019s cultural diplomacy dressed up as art\u2014a chance for each [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-usa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}